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fun and games in Australia

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: fun and games in Australia
From: Philip Anderton <P.Anderton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 15:44:05 +1000
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

			Report on Australian Nationals

	Goff Richards gave the A-grade Championship to Kew band (Melbourne,
Victoria), displacing 2 A-grade New Zealand bands. It is good to have the
"Fireman's helmet" return to Australia (The A-grade trophy is a mounted,
silver-plated fireman's helmet, I guess in honour of the Melbourne Fire
Brigade Band which, I am told, dominated the Nationals years ago).

	His comments were that the top three bands could easily compete at
Championship level in the UK, however the lower end of A-grade reminded him
of UK 1st and even 2nd division performances.

	About 400 people were kept waiting for about 50 minutes around midnight on
Saturday night as a decision was made about a protest from 7 of the 14
competing bands regarding, amongst other issues, the eligibility of the
registration of one player from Hawthorn band. The protest was upheld and
that band was disqualified. I do not know the full details. I hope Chris
Earl will provide full details for those interested on his "Australia's
Band World" home page.

	If you want to experience something of the prevailing atmosphere, rent a
copy of the good Australian film "Strictly Ballroom", and settle down to
watch it with a few beers. It's a good movie about people who lose the
artistic plot and become obsessed with petty detail and winning in amateur
artistic competitions. Really, you will find many of the characters you
know from Band Competitions in this movie.

	 Fortunately the music was generally excellent, and offset the somewhat
negative vibes otherwise prevailing. Goff Richards was a pleasure to play
for and listen to, a real gentleman. We now have a recording of our
performance, with his very positive and useful comments over-recorded.

	It was a disappointing year for Warringah: 8th in the Test (185) and last
(179, ouch!) in the O/C. We were placed 11th I think.

	Ensembles and sols were yesterday (Easter Monday). Our first quartet
(tuba, "Spritual Hazz Suite, Lennie Niehouse - Phil Anderton - BBb bass,
Steve Packer - EEb bass, Steve Pell-eupho, John Saunders - eupho) was
placed 4th in 8, and our quintet ("Morning Noon and Night Overture, arr
S.Packer - Steve Packer - bass, John Saunders - eupho, Michelle Breglec -
Eb tenor horn, Christina Saunders - flugel, Joanne Woosey - cornet ) was
placed first - the only other competitor was a quintet from Kew, the band
which won the championship! So we must be doing something right!!

	Speaking of Steve Packer, he was awarded 2nd in the EEb Bass to
Sutherland's excellent tuba player, Matthew Pankhurst.

	The other disappointment is that the famous pub meeting never eventuated,
but most of the internet banders did manage to catch up with each other.

Cheers

Phil Anderton

Philip Anderton B.Optom Ph.D	Ph:    +612 9385 4375
School of Optometry		Fax:   +612 93136243
University of NSW			Email: P.Anderton@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sydney 2052			Web:   http://www.optom.unsw.edu.au/
Australia	


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